Tag Archives: iran

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, June 23, 2025. This is my first blog since Thursday, June 19, 2025, not because Elliot and I went away or – God forbid – I was suffering from malaise or anything like that. (Since Dump was reelected, I have truly been suffering from unrepressed anger and gargantuan disillusionment over my fellow Americans who would stoop to bring this convicted felon back into the White House.) As I said when we journeyed to Norway and Europe in early May, no one I spoke to had any words of approbation for this criminal governing this country until 2028.

The reason for this mysterious lapse in the blog had everything to do with a nonfunctioning keyboard that began Thursday night when I decided to restart the computer after I saw my screen flickering for some strange reason. After I did that, I restarted the computer, went into my half of the computer, and then promptly learned my keyboard stopped typing. I couldn’t understand why. This keyboard works with batteries; it’s not powered by plugging it into a power source. I changed the batteries first as a solution to the problem, and again, the keyboard wouldn’t type one letter. So I wasted away for two long days before I called a tech guy from two years earlier, who helped us install our new Mac device. He didn’t come until Saturday around 2 and stayed for about an hour or so and he was unable to do anything. So he told me he had to take the keyboard away with him to test it with another computer and wouldn’t return until today, Monday. I was without my little device for four days, and Elliot said I was experiencing computer withdrawal symptoms. I agreed with him. I couldn’t write my blog, read my email, or write anything else for those four days. I’m not content with finding these things on my cell phone.

So “Eddie” returned today, but much later than I had hoped. Even though he’s very good at what he does, he really didn’t respond to my texts right away; I had to resort to calling him this morning to find out when he was coming. So I did call him close to 11 to inquire when he was coming, and he said, around 1 to 2. I ran out in the sweltering heat for a quick bite and came home to wait for him. Actually, Eddie didn’t come until around 3:20 instead of the time he earlier indicated in his text to me. I waited until 3 and was just about to call him when he did text me to indicate his phone died and that he was going to come in about 20 minutes, which made it about 3:20.

When Eddie appeared, he had a new keyboard in his hand and mouse, and he sat at the computer desk and got me to sign into my screen name, and – voila’ – the keys were working as beautifully as they should. But my old keyboard was now fodder for the garbage bin. It was not working; Eddie declared it corrupted. He provided me with a brand new black keyboard whose keys actually feel a little less taut than the old one. However, I’m still not totally inured to the new Logitech mouse. That might take more time to get used to.

So look what I missed in just four days: The big news is this “peace” president’s stunning pronouncement that this country dropped several bunker buster bombs on Fordo, Iran’s heavily fortified nuclear facility on Saturday, June 21. I’m sure this “wonderful” news was greeted by cheers by most decent-loving Americans! Not at all!

So now calls for impeachment have actually grown since this decision made by this lying sack of shit who just stated he was giving the Iranian regime two weeks to return to the negotiating table. I think he said this lie a day before dropping those bombs. Could you imagine the uproar if this brazen lie were made by a Democratic president, say, Joe Biden? Those hypocritical, cowardly repugnicans would be calling for his head!

An online article in Common Dreams by Eloise Goldsmith covers this development in “Calls for Impeachment Grow as Trump Floats ‘Regime Change’ in Iran.” As the president took to social media on Sunday to suggest that regime change was on the table for Iran, calls from Democratic lawmakers and outside progressive voices have continued to grow calling for his impeachment following the weekend bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

As for those claims that these Iranian facilities were completely destroyed, independent experts who viewed satellite imagery of the areas told NPR that the strike left Iran’s nuclear program damaged, but not destroyed. Unlike what the drunken Pete Hegseth who is our Secretary of Defense, who countered the facilities were “obliterated.” Not so, Pete; look at your own intelligence reports.

And there isn’t any proof that Iran was even attempting to build a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. Doesn’t this rash attack smack of our falsehood of “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq that were never there during the Bush era? Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a frequent vocal critic of this president, wrote on X, “It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) wrote on Sunday: “This is not about the merits of Iran’s nuclear program. No president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the U.S. without the approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachment offense.”

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) have introduced a war powers resolution in the U.S. House last week, asserting the constitutional requirement of congressional approval for any declaration of war. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced one in the Senate.

Countering the notion that this illiberal regime wants regime change in Iran, Defense Secretary Hegseth said in a press conference on Sunday, “This mission was not, and has not been, about regime change.” Vice President JD Vance said on NBC News on Sunday morning, “Our view has been very clear that we don’t want a regime change.” If you believe these liars about their true aim in a foreign country, then I have a bridge I can sell you cheap!

Well, I’m very glad to be back! I hope you missed me!

Stay cool tomorrow if you can. Temps are going to be in the vicinity of 99 degrees! I’ve already canceled plans on getting together with my friend “Harvey” tomorrow since I don’t want to be on a subway platform during the day.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Sunday, December 29, 2024. Today the country lost an elder statesman, former president Jimmy Carter, the Georgia peanut farmer, who died today at the age of 100. The Carter Center said the 39th president died in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. Carter had been in home hospice care since last February after a series of short hospital stays. Carter, a Democrat, served only one term from 1977 to 1981, losing a reelection bid to former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan. His presidency is largely remembered as an unfilled four years shaken by blows to America’s economy and standing overseas. However, his most lasting legacy, though, might be as a globetrotting elder statesman and human rights pioneer during an untiring 43-year “retirement.”

To me, who still remembered Carter’s single term, I always admired the man’s status as a humble humanitarian who worked tirelessly to eradicate disease in emerging countries, who built houses for the homeless under the banner of Habitat for Humanity, along with his inseparable companion of 77 years, Rosalynn, as well as being a man of great character and hope and optimism. Carter became the oldest-living former president when he surpassed the record held by the late George H.W. Bush in March 2019.

Remember, Carter’s term followed the presidential stewardship of Republican Gerald Ford after the Watergate debacle brought down a president, Richard M. Nixon, who resigned in August 1974. When he assumed the presidency, Carter vowed to restore morality and truth to politics – boy, how refreshing is that? – after an era of White House scandal that left many Americans distrustful of government.

Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets (who can forget waiting on line to get gas during his presidency?), and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights, and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978.

Yet Carter’s popularity got a shellacking when the country experienced double-digit inflation, those gasoline lines, and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran in which eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Who could forget that moment when the hostages were released right after Reagan’s inauguration which was a a final, bitter turn of events favoring his opponent once more?

I’ll always remember his famous address to the American people in which he talked about a sense of malaise (though he never used the word malaise” throughout the speech) that, he believed, had gripped the nation’s populace. He beseeched Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence” and, at another time, he urged consumers to turn down their thermostats since they were beleaguered by rising energy costs. This didn’t go over very well, of course, with many listeners.

In a word, Carter embodied decency in my mind, and it’s woefully absent from the kind of politics practiced today in Washington, and today President Joe Biden was asked what incoming president-elect Donald Trump could take away from the memory of Carter, Biden replied, it’s “decency.” Biden added, “Everybody deserves a shot. Everybody. Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking by someone who needed something and just keep walking? Can you imagine Jimmy Carter referring to someone by the way they look or the way they talk? [in a clear jab at Chump’s predilection for puerile name calling and using undesirable language to characterize his supposed “enemies.”] I can’t.”

In honor of this truly great American, flags are expected to be flown at half-staff at Dump’s inauguration in January. Carter will also rightfully receive a state funeral in Washington.

May Jimmy Carter’s memory be a blessing!

Have a good week, everyone.

And so it went!